Louisiana Farmers: Russian ban won't affect them

2014-08-08T03:53:20Z2014-08-10T16:59:24Z

Guidry said the U.S. will lose around $400 million a year. He explains if you look at the bigger picture that's not a lot.

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
After Russian Presidents Vladimir Putin announced that all US agricultural imports will be ban, Louisiana farmers and agriculturists say they're not worried. The ban is in retaliation to U.S. sanctions over Ukraine. This will block agricultural goods like soy beans, corn, cattle, and chicken. But, LSU Agriculturalist Kurt Guidry said the ban won't have a major impact on America or Louisiana, because Russia is not a big customer.

“Russia only buys two of those commodities, but when they do buy it's less than one percent of total sales.”

Guidry said the U.S. will lose around $400 million a year. He explains if you look at the bigger picture that's not a lot.

“Yeah, we are talking about hundred and millions of dollars, but we're talking about billions of dollars when you're talking about the total export budget for what we sell throughout the world,” said Guidry.

Farmer Donald Shexnayder says the lost of Russia won't affect his farm.

“A rain in the Midwest is going to affect the market way more than what this is projecting,” said Shexnayder